WINAMAC — Two Pulaski County children watched their father murder their mother, then turn the gun on himself. The apparent murder-suicide happened around 11:30 a.m. Monday on a residential street in Winamac.

Police say Ella Minix, 37, and Jonathan Minix, 40, had been separated for at least a couple weeks.

"It's a sad story," said Nancy Nies. "I feel sorry for those kids."

Nies saw Ella Minix's story of frustration and fear first-hand when Minix went to the Pulaski County Clerk's office early Monday morning to file a protective order against her husband.

"She had said she thought he had been mixed up in some drugs. She was wanting to protect her children. I don't think she realized she needed to protect herself," Nies told WSBT.

While Minix was filling out the paperwork for the protective order, Nies said the Minix ran into the clerk's office and said, 'He's here. He took my son.'"

Nies pushed the office's panic button, but never expected what would happen a few hours later.

Winamac Police Chief Jeff Heims said Jonathan Minix was likely chasing his wife through the Winamac streets. Minix hit his wife's truck at the intersection of 13th and Market.

"She spun around and was stopped there in her vehicle," Heims said. "And that's where the shots were fired."

Nearby construction workers saw the whole thing, said Heims. Witnesses told police Jonathan Minix fired at least five shots into his wife's pick-up truck.

Their 10-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son were in the truck with their mother when it happened.

Heims said the husband got back into his vehicle and proceeded west. A short time later, he apparently shot himself. The car rolled into a garage near the murder scene.

It happened in a quiet Winamac neighborhood about 15 miles from the couple's home in Denham.

"Stuff like this just doesn't really, generally happen here," said Mike O'Donnell, who lives nearby the murder scene.

O'Donnell and his wife are relieved nobody else was hurt.

"Our kids could have been out riding bicycles or something," he told WSBT.

But they're also sad for the two Minix children, whose lives were shattered in a split second.

"Having to witness that, it's just devastating," said Nancy Nies.

Police took the kids from the crime scene to the Division of Family and Children in Winamac. Investigators told WSBT the childrens' grandmother picked them up a short time later. Police say they will continue the investigation Tuesday.